Why do AGAL shaders need to be compiled on time?

Question

Flash Player 11 introduced AGAL as a unified shader assembly language that can easily compile OpenGL GLSL shaders and DirectX HLSL shaders into a Flash developer.

Almost every program that uses AGAL is packaged with AGALMiniAssembler (written in AS3), which takes the AGAL source code as a string and compiles it into the AGAL binary format at run time (i.e., Just In Time). Then this binary data is transferred to the Flash Player for subsequent submission to the graphic equipment.

But why should the AGAL source code be published and included in your application in the first place? Could you run the AGAL assembler on your dev. PC and just turn on AGAL ByteArray? Are AGAL copy compilations needed on time? Please note that I am not asking for benefits, I am just asking if I really need to include the AGAL source code and compile JIT instead of AOT (ahead of time).

Answer 1

Yes it is possible. When you compile shaders with a mini assembler, you get a bytearray. Therefore, you can simply use this bytearray - insert it or load it.